They discover a new species of blue whale thanks to its original song

2023-05-05 20:24:11

A team of specialists from Cetacean Program of the African Aquatic Conservation Fund managed to record some underwater acoustic recordings at Omurain it Mozambique Channelthroughout Madagascarwhich allowed him to determine that they came from a hitherto unknown species of blue whale.

According to the scientists in the study that was recently published in the revista Endangered Species Research This is a group of blue whales that were sighted off the coast of the island of Madagascar and in the vicinity of the Arabian Sea and the Chagos ArchipelagoOman, in 2017, only now managed to certify that it was a new subspecies and that there are at least two different groups of blue whales in that region.

“It was quite remarkable to find a whale song that was completely uniquenever before reported, and recognize it as a blue whale,” he commented, through a press release, Salvatore Cerchio, director of the aforementioned center who has spent more than 30 years researching whale populations around the world.

“As this is the only blue whale song that has been identified in the western Arabian Sea, we label it the type of song ‘North West Indian Ocean’ to distinguish it from other types of regional songs. To think that there is a population that nobody knew anything about until 2017, well, it leaves you dumbstruck. No other groups were known to exist.apart from the one already known in the waters of the Indian Ocean”, added the main author of the study.

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This discovery sparked great hope among scientists regarding blue whales already according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are currently among the species in Danger of extinction,

In this regard, it should be noted that, although the blue whale was on the verge of total extinction between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th due to his indiscriminate commercial huntingcurrently continues to face large global threatslike the growing loss of its natural habitat as a consequence of climate change that alters both the temperature and the Ph of the ocean waters in which it lives. They also run the risk of colliding with ships and boats and getting caught and killed in fishing lines of the ships.

However, thanks to the numerous measures of environmental protection that have been carried out in the last fifty years, the Blue whale population has managed to register more than encouraging growthTherefore, the discoverers of this new species affirm that all necessary measures must be taken, such as sanction much stricter laws on maritime transport and reduce carbon emissions to ensure their subsistence.

“The blue whale plays an important role in its ecosystem and is essential in the food chain.. In addition to eating large amounts of krill and other small creatures, regulating the ocean ecosystemsThey are also excellent carbon dioxide sinks, since they can capture up to 33 tons of CO2”, added the whale specialist.

“Thereforeeverything we do for their conservation and reproduction is vital for their future and that of all humanity”, concluded Cerchio.